


The Man Behind the Mask

by Shipperoftrashyships



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Merc is Merc, convention au, cute bday gift, fanartist, minor em/weiss relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 11:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16639592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shipperoftrashyships/pseuds/Shipperoftrashyships
Summary: Yang's been enjoying herself at a convention and selling lots of her fan art, but her day gets even better when a man in a mask shows up.





	The Man Behind the Mask

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LilNib](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilNib/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIB! <3 Hope you enjoy this, I wanna say a huge thanks again to SuperSecretAgentQrow for beta reading this for me! You're the best beta reader ever <3

Yang loved conventions, between all the cosplay, the new show announcements, and especially the chance to meet some actors for her favorite games and shows. She loved conventions so much that she set up her own booth selling fan art and merch, and damn fine merch too - almost every piece she put on the table sold like wildfire.

 

Her highest-selling artwork was a colored sketch of her favourite character Yuri Lowenthal, a dorkish and cheery goofball who was voiced by hot and dreamy bad boy Mercury Black...

  
  
“Nice art you got there.” A poorly-timed customer shook her out of her risqué daydreams. He was tall and lanky, but that was about everything she could tell about the man behind the plastic Shrek mask...   
  


“Thanks! Anything in particular catch your eye?” Yang grinned cheerfully - business was business, no matter how ugly the ogr-  _ customer _ .

 

His eyes drifted over to the drawing of the hour. “What's so special about this one?”

  
  
“Oh, funny story actually! A friend of mine works at a fast food place, and one day someone walked in and straight-up ordered a hundred nuggets. To me that just sounded exactly like something Yuri would do,” she explained to the new customer.

 

The Shrek man nodded sagely, almost shaking his plastic mask right off. “Huh, you know that does sound like something he’d do, hell it sounds like something  _ I  _ would do. I think I’ll let my producer know about that then.”

 

Yang paused. “Your...your producer? Are you telling me you’re an actor?”

 

He shrugged. “More or less. In fact, maybe you’ve heard of me!” With a dramatic flourish, he tore off the plastic mask to reveal the signature smirk of Mercury Black, leaving Yang a little star struck. “So, how much for this?” His eyes went back over to the art, almost enraptured with it.

 

Yang blinked once. Twice. A few more times. She knew that ramen had been funky but this was a whole new level of trippy. “Uhhhhh, why the Shrek mask?” Yang asked instead of answering his question.

  
  
“Welllll, when you’re any kind of famous it’s hard to walk around a convention without getting mobbed, so I’ve been using the mask to hide in plain sight,” he explained. “It’s really good at making sure people don’t stop me while I’m wandering around. Nobody wants a faceful of Scottish ogre.” 

 

Yang considered his reasoning. “Alright then, if you’re willing to roleplay a fat balding green dude just to hide from crazy fans, why the face reveal?”

  
  
Without warning Mercury leaned in close, so close their noses almost touched. “Sometimes it’s worth the chaos just to get a reaction outta someone.” He straightened back out before she could push him away or do something  _ really  _ stupid, like... 

 

“Anyway, how much for the art?” 

  
  
“Oh, j-just five dollars,” she stuttered, grinning at the irony of her favourite voice actor purchasing fanart of his own character.

 

He rummaged through his pockets, pulling out his wallet and a crumpled bill. “Here, keep the change,” he yawned handing her a ten dollar bill before winking and turning to leave.

  
  
Yang didn’t know what drove her to reach out and grab him by the arm, but by the time she realized she did it she had his full attention once again. “Ahem. Mister Black. Sooo I was thinking if you’re not too busy at the moment, could I, y’know...  _ draw _ you?” she muttered bashfully.

  
  
She was suddenly hyper-aware of every little emotion flitting across his face, reading his initial confusion and watching it morph from intrigue to defaulting back to man-sass. “Draw me, huh? Not that I’m totally opposed, but I’m not exactly French girl material, Blondie,” he smirked.

 

Yang snorted at the thought which gave her a mental nosebleed. She hid the incoming mind break well. “I mean if you  _ wanted  _ to pose naked for me, I wouldn’t complain,” she teased. “I was thinking more along the lines of actually doing a portrait sketch, nothing too time-consuming for a big-shot actor like you.”

 

Mercury leaned against the wall, holding his chin with the hand holding the Shrek mask. “Nah I don’t mind giving you a chance to consider my  _ radical _ physique. But yeah I’m pretty sure I’m free for the rest of the day, so no sweat.”

 

Before he could change his mind Yang grabbed his warm and calloused hand - only as long as he might consider normal - and sat him on the stool behind her booth. “Awesome! Well go ahead and get comfortable and I’ll get right to work,” she said chipperly.

 

She could’ve sworn she saw him roll his eyes, but Mercury just smirked before adopting a pose that in her mind no one else could pull off without looking like a total douche.  _ Scratch that _ \- he still looked like a dick, but between the comfortable slouch leaning on his right elbow against the table, the easy confident smile that was almost a synonym to his name, and the stray strand of silver hair almost hiding his grey eyes, Yang had never met another person who made asshole look so badass.  _ Yeah, no getting over that crush now, sister... _

 

Within an hour Yang was finishing up her hasty sketch, touching up the few details where he’d shifted on purpose just to mess with her “Alright,  _ aaand  _ that’s it! All done!” Yang cheered.

 

Mercury rolled his eyes good-naturedly, cracking out a few kinks in his neck. “Finally, I was almost convinced you’d keep me here just to ogle my Shrek mask,” he chuckled. “Well? You gonna lemme see what you got?”

 

Yang briefly considered shoving it into her bag to hide in a desk drawer for all eternity, but she steeled her nerves as she held it out to him. Just before he got it, for the second time today a woman snatched his arm and painfully dragged him up and out of his seat.

  
  
The green-haired woman damn near snarled at him. “So  _ this  _ is where you’ve been all day? You  _ do  _ realize you have your cast panel in five minutes right? Earth to Mercury, the Roman god stuck flying his goddamn chariot while we mortals wait for him to-”

 

“Ugh, Emmy,  _ Emmy _ , spare me the poor abused secretary act!” Mercury groaned, palming her face. “C’mon, didn’t you say I should find new ways to diversify my marketing portfolio or something- ow ow ow cut it out!” He tore her hand off his ear, huffing as he straightened his collar.

 

Em glared at him with an intensity rivaling Ruby’s love for cookies. “Do whatever you want here, but show up late one more time and I will flay the skin from your bones onstage beside Monty fucking Oum,” she hissed. The manager waved at Yang with a tight-lipped smile. “It’s nice to meet you miss. Don't let him waste your time.” She sped off without even acknowledging Mercury’s middle finger, on the phone with someone whose name was either babe or Weiss.

 

Left alone again, Yang and Mercury shared a brief chuckle before he leaned back against the booth, scratching the back of his head like an awkward middle schooler. Maybe there wasn’t a huge gap between the goofball character Yuri and the actor behind him. “Sooo...guess I’d better get to the job part of the Hollywood life. Thanks for making me sit still in a chair for an hour?”

 

Yang smothered a laugh under the back of her hand. “You’re welcome for the chance to act like an actual adult for a change. I had a great time watching yo- _ I mean _ sketching you. Heh.”  Yang gave up equivocating and simply handed over the drawing.

 

He held it upright, then considered it on its sides and upside down. In typical cute weirdo fashion. “Huh. That’s pretty damn impressive.” Mercury paused for a moment before rummaging around the booth hastily. “Hey, you got a marker or something?” When she passed it over he quickly scrawled something in the bottom-right margin on the sketch. “Here, as thanks for the pretty sort of company,” he said as he passed back the sketch. There, at the small corner mostly occupied by his foot, his signature was clearly printed on it.

 

Yang only barely contained her excitement. “Oh, t-thanks, that’s actually really cool! You can bet I’ll get it framed just for myself,” Yang told him giddily just as the mint-haired woman strutted back over.

 

“Yeah yeah I’ll get him there asap… love you too Weiss,” she sighed before she hangs up, literally grabbing Mercury by the collar. “Alright, time to get your stupid ass to the panel rodeo style.”

 

“Em!” the poor procrastinator cried out, “don't do this to me! Ah, shit, looks like we’re actually doing this. Well, catch ya round Blondie,” he yelled out to her before Em turned a corner and intentionally bumped him into it before they were out of sight.

 

Yang, understandably perplexed, simply waved in their direction. “See ya,” Yang sighed wistfully, happy that at the very least she got to spend some one on one time with her personal celebrity crush.

 

Just before she packed up for the day, the same corner Mercury signed peeked at her from the edge of her eyesight. Yang held up the sketch, admiring both the handsome subject of the photo and her own handiwork. When she held it up, however, Yang noticed something scrawled on the backside:

 

_ Didn’t think I’d meet a fan who held in how much she wanted to kidnap me on sight. Hanging out with you was honestly really fun, and your art is even better than that. Keep up the greatness Blondie, and who knows? If you’re ever down to try and eat 100 nuggets with me just call me at the number below. _

 

_ Cheers, _

_ Mercury Black (your celebrity crush) _

 

Yang laughed out loud at that one. Was she really that transparent? But more importantly, he decided that he still wanted to spend some time hanging with her, and the thought of going out with Mercury Black -  _ going out _ ?! - kinda pretty much rocked her world. She didn’t think she’d make a boyfriend out of the convention, let alone a movie star hunk fluent in sarcasm, but Yang wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

Not to mention she couldn’t wait to kick his ass in competitive chicken nugget eating. That there would be true love.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed it and again have a happy birthday Nib! <3 <3


End file.
